The crowd of 21,451 that turned out for UFC 97 in April not only set a North American attendance record for MMA, it also topped this year’s average home attendance of four Major League Baseball teams.

The Washington Nationals, Florida Marlins, Pittsburgh Pirates and Oakland Athletics are each averaging less than 21,400 fans for their home games through this past Saturday.

Welcome to the new normal in sports, where MLB is struggling to draw fans amid the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, yet the UFC is playing to large, raucous crowds wherever it travels. As recently as earlier this decade, no one in sports would have fathomed the possibility that an MMA event could draw a crowd larger than the average home attendance of one big-league baseball team, let alone four.

The development speaks to the continued popularity of the UFC and its status as a recession-proof draw. Overall, MLB attendance is down 10 percent this year. The UFC, on the other hand, hasn’t missed a beat. The promotion is consistently selling 12,000 to 13,000 tickets for its pay-per-view events and occasionally hosts breakout shows with even larger crowds, such as UFC 97 in Montreal and next month’s UFC 100 in Las Vegas.

With its UFC Fight Night franchise, the UFC has been winning the TV ratings battle in some key demographics with baseball for the past few years, and 2009 numbers at the turnstiles show that the UFC is holding up much better than some baseball teams in these difficult economic times.

And while there is still plenty of opportunity for growth for the UFC in the U.S., continued expansion into new international markets is a key component of the promotion’s future strategy. However, as the UFC learned with UFC 99 in Cologne, Germany, blazing a new path in foreign territory is not without its challenges. For example, citing the violent nature of the sport, German officials banned minors from attending UFC 99.

“I think we always anticipate, any time we go into any new territory, that these kinds of questions are going to be asked,” said UFC U.K. Division President Marshall Zelaznik. “I think the thing that was probably most surprising was the lack of research, as it were, that some of the media and politicians were willing to do before they came out with opinions on this. It seems that they took the first story that was the old story from 1997 about no rules, etc., and everyone ran with that without doing any research.”

Myths that persist about MMA also hamper the ability for the UFC to promote events in some international markets.

“Our best marketing tool is the television programming itself. And what we’ve found, in terms of running ads to promote whatever it is we’re doing, whether it’s merchandise, tickets, the different regulatory issues that we have to deal with, whether it’s in the U.K. or Germany or Sweden, there are (only) certain times of day you can air those spots,” said Zelaznik. “There are certain content that they don’t want to see in the spots. So, we will create, from time to time, spots that don’t have big impacts. You might flash the impacts. We’re literally back in those late ’90s (in the U.S.) trying to deliver spots that can actually air on TV. So that’s the big struggle, I think, overall.”

In one corner of the globe, the UFC can outdraw the two-time World Series champion Florida Marlins, and in other areas, it can’t even show one of its standard promos on TV. An interesting dichotomy, to be sure, but not one that will slow down the UFC’s pursuit of building its brand globally.

Got Fight? lands on NYT best-seller list

Add bestselling author to Forrest Griffin’s list of accolades.

The former UFC light heavyweight champion’s “Got Fight?” combat battle guide, written with Erich Krauss, has been out a week, and it debuted at No. 8 on The New York Times’ hardcover advice bestseller list. The book promises to deliver “50 Zen principles of hand-to-face combat,” which sounds exactly like something Griffin would say.

While it’s an impressive debut for the Griffin book, the other just-released hardback to crack the top 10 beat it soundly. “Divine Soul Songs,” by someone named Zhi Gang Sha, apparently appealed to a broader audience. It was No. 1 for the week.

Keeping “Kimbo” relevant

Selecting Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson for the upcoming 10th season of “The Ultimate Fighter” is the latest stroke of marketing genius from the UFC.

Despite being exposed in a 14-second loss to Seth Petruzelli this past October, Ferguson still has a measure of curb appeal among fans, most of whom probably want to see him implode further. He’s the equivalent of a car wreck on the MMA highway from which some fans can’t look away. That will undoubtedly boost ratings for “TUF 10,” which began shooting earlier this month and begins airing in September.

In fact, in the latest MMAjunkie.com/”Inside MMA” poll, 61 percent of respondents said they are more likely to watch the show now that Ferguson will be part of the cast.

Using “TUF” to get the former street brawler into the UFC was the only way the promotion could take a flyer on Ferguson and retain credibility with its fighters.

“I think that given Kimbo’s track record, his history and all that kind of stuff and where he came from and just his performance and the fights that he’s had so far, I think that this is probably where he should be,” said longtime UFC fighter and former champ Rich Franklin. “I mean, it’s a smart move to put him on the show. It’s going to pull in ratings. So, from a business point of view, that’s probably the best thing that you could do. But, I think at this point in time, he doesn’t deserve to just go into the UFC and fight. He kind of has to earn his way to get there. And, “The Ultimate Fighter” is the best place to do it.”

WAMMA keeps up the fight

WAMMA is still standing.

Despite the departures of Chief Operating Officer Mike Lynch, founding board member Pat Miletich and Sam Caplan, who served as chair of the organization’s ranking committee and COO in separate stints, the fledgling MMA sanctioning body remains open for business.

Following the resignations of the aforementioned trio and a number of journalists from the fighter rankings committee last month, it was widely speculated in the MMA industry that the demise of the World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts was all but assured. (Disclosure: The four MMAjunkie.com representatives who served on the rankings committee have resigned.) However, the start-up company is forging ahead and planning to be associated with Affliction’s third show, Trilogy, in August.

“As the famous quote says, ‘The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated,'” said Dave Szady, CEO of WAMMA. “WAMMA is still in a tremendous position in the sport of MMA. We have had some setbacks with departures. However, even some of those can be corrected. For example, Mike Lynch is now heavily involved with WAMMA as a consultant. Pat Miletich also remains a strong believer in all of the objectives … and all of the goals of WAMMA. After all, a lot of them come from his thinking about what the sport actually needs.”

While Lynch left to pursue a new business venture, an issue of compensation drove Miletich’s separation from WAMMA. WAMMA, which was launched on two rounds of private funding, has yet to secure a source of revenue. The organization has been forced to reduce expenses and cut salaries.

“We can’t ask Pat or anybody else to continue to work for stock or work for the future without being able to give them something in return,” Szady said.

As recently as April, WAMMA appeared to be on the verge of signing its first sponsor in a move that Lynch told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) at the time would, “go a long way to forming up our credibility, not only in the sport, but with corporate America.” Lynch characterized the deal as imminent, but nearly two months later, it has yet to be signed.

Szady blames the slumping economy, not the organization’s recent turmoil, for the delay in getting a deal done.

“We are still talking to them, and it may be scaled down from where we were going to go with it at first and probably starting at a lower, slower level and growing from there,” he said. “Because of where we sit within the MMA world, we still feel confident about sponsors and advertisers, particularly since we have a strong association with Affliction.”

Thus far, potential sponsors simply don’t share Szady’s enthusiasm for WAMMA’s future. The reality is that WAMMA’s cash is dwindling, and seeking a third round of funding is an unlikely near-term option. Venture capital deals in the first quarter of this year were at their lowest level since 1995.

Regardless of what MMA fans think about the need for a sanctioning body in MMA, WAMMA can’t survive much longer without generating revenue.

Mixed Martial Arts LLC does business with Bing

Mixed Martial Arts LLC has inked a deal with Microsoft to provide MMA fighter information for the software company’s new Bing search engine.

The MMA company has been online since 1999 and currently hosts www.mixedmartialarts.com. The deal with Microsoft marks a significant milestone in its history. Mixed Martial Arts LLC calls the agreement a “data partnership” in which it provides fighter information, including photo, age, height, weight and record, for users searching on Bing.com and msn.com Web pages linked to Bing Search.

“We provide a feed for the top 5,000 fighters in our database,” said Chris Palmquist, Mixed Martial Arts LLC partner. “It’s always good to associate your brand with another top brand, and everybody knows who Microsoft is. We’re also trying to do deals with other bigger sites, like CBS, Yahoo! and Fox Sports.”

The one-year pact doesn’t generate direct revenue for Mixed Martial Arts LLC, but an affiliation with a company of Microsoft’s ilk is the type of credibility-building deal that could open doors to future business opportunities.

(Pictured: Dana White)

Steve Sievert is the lead staff writer and business columnist for MMAjunkie.com. He is also the former MMA beat writer and lead blogger for the Houston Chronicle.

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